Indigenous Peoples and local communities have been conserving their lands and forests for centuries. But the rise of “fortress conservation” is forcing them from their homes, hurting people and forests alike.

An authority that represents indigenous organizations of the nine Amazonian countries proposes a conservation initiative in which cultural traditions and ancestral knowledge form the basis for development.

The Amazon Indigenous REDD+ (RIA) initiative led in Colombia by the indigenous organization OPIAC is being implemented in the departments of Amazonas and Guainia, territories made up of 169 indigenous reservations of 56 different villages, not counting the populations that are in voluntary isolation. In 2012, the reservation of the Upper Basin of the Inírida River (CMARI), inside the Puinawai Nature Reserve, was chosen as the location of the first pilot implementation project of RIA in Colombia, which had its official presentation at COP18, the 18th meeting of the UN Climate Change Conference. For indigenous communities in the Amazon, it is important that their ancestral traditions are recognized as the basis for the implementation of RIA and used as a mechanism to safeguard Amazonian biodiversity.

Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala

In the Maya Biosphere Reserve concessions where local communities sustainably harvest forest products have proved a boon for people and the forest alike — but their future is uncertain. Mongabay correspondent Sandra Cuffe investigates the complex forces at play in her series exploring challenges in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

Conservation’s people problem

The field of conservation has faced down an internal crisis over is its treatment of indigenous peoples and local communities living in ecosystems targeted for protection. Conservationists now often engage these groups in a spirit of partnership, asking and listening instead of telling and demanding. But still there is much work to do. Part 4 of Conservation, Divided: Mongabay’s four-part series investigating how the field of conservation has changed over the last 30 years.

Is carbon funding hurting forest peoples?

The Paris Agreement of December 2015 encourages countries “…to take action to implement and support, including through results-based payments…activities relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” (Article 5) as a key policy instrument for climate change mitigation. The Agreement also acknowledges the need to respect human rights in all climate actions.

"I have struggled to tell this story in ways that make sense to average readers who understand little about carbon markets and the magnitude of REDD+. One personal goal is to explain the Kuna perspective on REDD+ and their opposition — which is why you see in the piece a focus on them, and not on the REDD+ program per se. I consciously left a lot of the inside-baseball details out, the back-and-forth, because I simply find it not only confusing to the reader, but not relevant to the issue at hand, which was, why did the Kuna (from their perspective, from what they know and what many people told me) reject REDD+? Also, the piece aims to tell a human narrative, and not be a technical report." Ruxandra Guidi

Forced Relocation of Sengwer People proves urgency of canceling REDD

We, the No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN) together with the undersigned organizations and individuals, strongly condemn the massive evictions and forced relocation of the Sengwer Indigenous People, one of the few remaining hunter-gatherers of the world, from their ancestral home in Kenya’s Cherangany Hills. The Kenyan government calls the Sengwer People ‘squatters,’ despite the fact that they and their ancestors have lived in the Cherangany Hills since time immemorial; and that Article (63d) of the Kenyan constitution (2010) grants them inalienable rights to their ancestral lands.

U.N.-REDD program criticized for negative impact on Indigenous communities

REDD (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is a U.N. program which uses financial incentives to encourage governments and companies in developing countries to offset their CO2 emissions, significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and conserve trees whilst respecting the interests of all stakeholders.